The Delhi government on Tuesday said it aims to release the first instalment of the ₹2,500-a-month financial assistance under the ‘Delhi Lakshmi Yojana’ to about 17 lakh eligible women on Raksha Bandhan, which falls on August 28. The government also announced additional eligibility criteria for the scheme and said an online portal for applications would be launched on August 1, according to an official release issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).
According to the CMO statement on Tuesday, other exclusions include income taxpayers, GST return filers, government employees, women with more than three living children, families with annual electricity consumption exceeding 2,400 units, and families with a member employed by the State or Central governments, any Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), or any government organisation.
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said eligible women would have two options for receiving the monthly assistance of ₹2,500. Under the first option, ₹1,500 would be deposited in a recurring deposit (RD) or fixed deposit (FD), while ₹1,000 would be credited to a digital rupee wallet.
“The amount credited to the digital wallet can be spent only on permitted goods and services as specified under the government’s prescribed ‘Negative List’. Under the second option, beneficiaries may choose to receive the entire ₹2,500 in an RD/FD. This option is intended to help women build long-term savings and capital,” the statement read.
The Chief Minister said the government had fulfilled this important promise made to women within just over a year of assuming office. “Under the Delhi Lakshmi Yojana, every eligible woman will receive ₹2,500 a month as financial assistance. The scheme will usher in a new chapter of financial security and self-reliance for lakhs of women,” Ms. Gupta said.
Earlier this month, The Hindu reported that the Delhi government would launch the scheme by the end of August. Under the scheme, one of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) key promises in the run-up to the 2025 Delhi Assembly election, the government would provide ₹2,500 a month to eligible women aged between 21 and 60 years.
Specifying the eligibility criteria for the scheme, the CMO had said, “Only those women will be eligible who, or whose families, have been residents of Delhi for at least 10 years. Neither the beneficiary nor her family should have any criminal record. Within a family, only the eldest eligible woman will qualify for the scheme, and only one woman from each family will be entitled to receive the benefit. In addition, the family’s annual income must not exceed ₹2.5 lakh.”
The CMO had also said that women already receiving benefits under any government pension or other regular financial assistance scheme would not be eligible. Women from families owning a four-wheeler would also be excluded from the scheme.
Key poll promise
In its manifesto for the 2025 Assembly election, the BJP had promised to provide ₹2,500 a month to women from “poor families” under the scheme, then called the ‘Mahila Samriddhi Yojana’.
During the election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the scheme would be approved at the first Cabinet meeting of a BJP government and described it as “Modi ki guarantee”. He had also said that women would start receiving the benefit by March 8, 2025.
On March 8, 2025, the Delhi Cabinet approved the scheme and allocated ₹5,100 crore for it. However, it was not rolled out during the financial year. The allocation was later revised to ₹5,110 crore in the annual budget presented in March this year.
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